...As a result, many of the broadcasts from nightclubs and ballrooms that Mr. Savory recorded contain more relaxed and free-flowing versions of hit songs originally recorded in the studio. One notable example is a stunning six-minute Coleman Hawkins performance of “Body and Soul” from the spring of 1940; in it this saxophonist plays a five-chorus solo even more adventurous than the renowned two-chorus foray on his original version of the song, recorded in the fall of 1939. By the last chorus, he has drifted into uncharted territory, playing in a modal style that would become popular only when Miles Davis recorded “Kind of Blue” in 1959.
An eccentric American, described as a musician and a recording genius, traipses all over mid-century Harlem, recording jazz musicians. A secretive crank, he allows only a handful of people to hear his recordings over the years. In 2004 he dies, and his son recovers a treasure chest of aluminum and acetate discs moldering in an attic. The son sells them to the National Jazz Museum. We may get to hear them soon.
I can't wait.
